KR101037458B1 - Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention creates an electronic document by applying character recognition to character images in a document image and drawing the character recognition result in transparent color on the document image. This electronic document makes it possible to specify the portion corresponding to the search keyword on the document image when performing the search. When this electronic document is generated, the electronic document is font data used when drawing a character recognition result, and includes a technique necessary for common use of simple character-shaped glyph data (font data) for a plurality of character types. Therefore, even if the electronic document needs to preserve font data, the increase in file size can be minimized. In addition, by drawing using a simple character shape, the data size of the font data itself can also be reduced.

Image processing device, electronic document, document recognition, transparent color, font data

Description

Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium {IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM}

The present invention relates to a technique for converting a scanned image of a paper document into electronically searchable data.

Recently, since mass storage devices such as scanners, hard disks, and the like have become widespread, documents that have been preserved on paper are scanned and preserved as electronic documents. In this case, character recognition processing is performed on image data obtained by scanning a paper document to read text information described in the document, and the text information is stored in association with the image. The user can search the electronic documents associated with the text information using the search keywords. In order to quickly search for a desired document from a large group of archived documents in this way, it is important to permit keyword search even for scanned images.

For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-322417 describes the following technique. That is, when a user searches for an electronic document associated with text information using search keywords, the text portions describing the search keywords on the document image are highlighted so that the user can be identified. Since the text portions corresponding to the search keywords are highlighted, if the document includes a plurality of description portions for the same keywords, the user can efficiently identify the description portions by switching page images.

On the other hand, a technique of inserting the results of the character recognition processing into the image file as transparent text (character codes designated with transparent color as the drawing color) and preserving the image file in PDF (Portable Document Format) format is also available. When displaying a PDF file created in this way, transparent text is drawn on the character images in the document image. Thus, when performing a keyword search, transparent text is found, but the user cannot see the transparent text itself, and the image appears to be found. In this way, an image that can be searched using search keywords can be drawn based on a file in a format described using a page description language that allows for drawing images and text.

Drawing text in an electronic document using a page description language such as PDF, SVG, or the like requires character shape information of each character, that is, a glyph of font data. However, since font data typically have a large size, it is common to specify font types in an electronic document without storing the font data in the electronic document. In this way, the application can draw text data using fonts installed on the personal computer.

On the other hand, storing font data in electronic documents is often required. For example, if the electronic document generated by the document generating application is opened by another personal computer, the electronic document cannot be opened correctly if the font data used in the electronic document is not installed in the personal computer. In other words, even when a personal computer or an application which does not have the designated font data installed reproduces the electronic document, if the font data itself is stored in the electronic document, the electronic document can be reproduced correctly.

In some cases, depending on the applications used, it is required to store in the electronic document the font data used to render the characters as an essential condition. For example, for files that must be preserved for long periods of time, fonts installed by default may change due to OS changes after a long period of time. Therefore, it is required to store font data as an essential format.

Some formats have an essential condition to store font data in an electronic document. For example, in XPS (XML Paper Specification) format, it is necessary to save font data together at the time of saving text data.

However, when storing font data in an electronic document, the size of the electronic document itself increases. If the file size increases, it takes a lot of time to transfer the electronic document over the network, or a large storage size is required to store the document.

In this way, in an electronic document of a file format in which characters are drawn using font data stored in the electronic document, it is required to prevent the file size from increasing. In particular, when storing scanned images, text data as a result of character recognition, and font data used for drawing text together in an electronic document, it is desired to prevent an increase in file size. In cases where it is necessary to store font data in an electronic document due to limitations in format, system, etc., the increase in file size often causes problems easily.

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned problems include: character recognition means configured to perform character recognition processing on a plurality of character images in a document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And glyph data commonly used for the plurality of character codes when drawing the document image, a plurality of character codes acquired by the character recognition means, and characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. It is solved by providing an image processing apparatus including a generating means configured to be configured to do so.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the first embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the electronic document generation processing in the first embodiment.

3 is a flowchart showing an example of the electronic document search and browsing process of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of the electronic document data generation processing executed in step S208 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing details of the page drawing process executed in step S306 of FIG.

6 shows an example of an electronic document generated according to the first embodiment.

7 shows an example of a page image to be processed.

8 shows an example of the result of region division processing.

9 shows an example of area data to be generated.

10 shows an example of processing executed when character images are extracted at the time of execution of the character recognition processing.

11 shows an example of character code string data generated based on a character recognition result.

12 shows an example of a character code string table.

Fig. 13 shows an example of display of a page on which a search result is highlighted.

14A and 14B show display examples of pages on which a search result is highlighted by another highlight display process.

15 shows an example of an electronic document generated according to the second embodiment.

16 shows an example of display of a page in which a search result is highlighted.

17 shows an example of a page image to be processed.

18 shows an example of display of a page on which a search result is highlighted.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the relative arrangement, equations, and numerical values of the components described in the present embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless specifically stated otherwise.

<First Embodiment>

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image processing apparatus.

The image processing apparatus 100 is an apparatus for implementing this embodiment, and converts document image data into a searchable electronic document. The image processing apparatus 100 includes a scanner 101, a central processing unit (CPU) 102, a memory 103, a hard disk 104, a network interface 105, and a user interface (UI) 106. . The scanner 101 scans the page information of the paper document and converts it into document image data. The CPU 102 is a processor that executes a computer program or the like necessary for interpreting image data and converting it into a searchable electronic document. The memory 103 is a storage medium which holds intermediate data of programs and processes and is used as a work space of the CPU. Hard disk 104 is a mass storage medium used for storing data such as computer programs and electronic documents. The network interface 105 is an interface required for connecting to the network 120 and is used to transmit data such as scanned images, converted searchable electronic documents, etc. to an external device, and to receive data from the external device. The user interface 106 is an interface used to receive instructions from a user and includes input devices including input keys, a touch panel, and the like, and a display device such as a liquid crystal display. Note that the configuration of the device of the present invention is not limited to such specific configuration.

The image processing apparatus 110 may search for and browse the electronic documents generated by the image processing apparatus 100. The CPU 111 executes computer programs necessary for executing a process for searching for and browsing electronic documents. The memory 112 is used as a workspace when programs are executed and is a storage medium that temporarily stores data. The hard disk 113 is a mass storage medium used for storing data such as computer programs and electronic documents. The network interface 114 is an interface used to receive data such as electronic documents and the like from an external device and to transmit data to the external device. The user interface 115 is an interface used to receive instructions from a user and includes input devices including input keys, a touch panel, and the like, and a display device such as a liquid crystal display.

The processing of the first embodiment will now be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

2 illustrates a case in which the image processing apparatus 100 generates a searchable electronic document based on image data acquired by scanning a paper document, and transmits the electronic document to the image processing apparatus 110, for example. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process performed by the process.

In step S201, the CPU 102 determines the transmission destination and transmission method of the electronic document to be generated according to the user's instruction operation. The user issues instructions via the user interface 106. The transfer method is selected from choices such as email, file transfer using FTP, and the like.

When the user sets a paper document and presses a start key, in step S202 the CPU 102 scans the paper document set using the scanner 101 to generate document image data, and the document image data is generated. Save in memory. When inputting a document including a plurality of pages using an auto document feeder or the like, each page is converted into one page image data, and the converted page image data is stored in memory ( 103).

"(702)과 문자열 "

"(703) 및 사진(704)을 포함한다. 사진(704)은 간략화를 위해 실선의 직사각형으로 간단히 도시되지만, 그것은 실제로 자연 화상이라는 것에 유의한다. 도 7의 예시에서, 페이지 화상(701)은 문자열들(702, 703) 및 사진(704)만을 포함하지만, 그것은 그래픽 영역 등도 포함할 수 있다. 도 7의 예시는 일본어의 문자열들(702, 703)을 도시한다. 그러나, 본 발명은 일본어에 한정되지 않는다. 예를 들어, 알파벳 문자열들(영어 등)도 유사하게 처리될 수 있다. 도 17은 알파벳 문자열들(1702, 1703)을 포함하는 문서 화상(1701)의 일례를 도시한다.7 shows an example of a page image. The page image 701 of FIG. 7 has a character string "

"702 and string"

703 and a picture 704. Note that the picture 704 is simply shown as a solid rectangle for simplicity, but it is actually a natural picture. In the example of FIG. 7, the page picture 701 is Although only the character strings 702 and 703 and the picture 704 are included, it may also include a graphic area, etc. The example of Fig. 7 shows Japanese character strings 702 and 703. However, the present invention is in Japanese. For example, alphabet strings (English, etc.) can be similarly processed .. Fig. 17 shows an example of a document image 1701 including alphabetic strings 1702, 1703.

As a format of page image data, for example, when a paper document is a color document, the page image data is treated as a color image expressing grayscales in 8 bits for each of R, G, and B. When the paper document is a monochrome document, the page image data is treated as a gray image representing luminance in 8 bits or a binary image representing monochrome in 1 bit.

In step S203, the CPU 102 selects page image data stored in the memory 103 but not yet processed as an image to be processed. When there are images of a plurality of pages, the CPU 102 selects an image of one page as an image to be processed in accordance with the input order.

In step S204, the CPU 102 interprets the image to be processed and identifies areas having different characteristics such as text area, graphic area, picture area, table area, etc. to generate area data associated with each identified area. The area analysis process is executed to save the area data in the memory 103. Each area data includes the position coordinates (x coordinate value and y coordinate value) of the upper left corner of the circumscribed rectangle of the area, the values of the number of pixels indicating the size (width and height) of the circumscribed rectangle, and the type of the identified area. Note that It is assumed that the area analysis processing uses the latest technology (also referred to as area identification processing, area discrimination processing, area extraction processing). For example, when using the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-68301, from the binary document image data, a range in which black pixel clusters having similar sizes are vertically or horizontally connected can be extracted as a text area. have.

As a result of the area analysis process for the page image 701 shown in FIG. 7, as shown in FIG. 8, the text area 801 and the picture area 802 are identified. 9 shows an example of the area data acquired by the area analysis process. When the area analysis process is performed on an image (for example, the image 1701 of FIG. 17) containing alphabet character strings, an area analysis result similar to the area analysis result of FIG. 7 is obtained.

In step S205, the CPU 102 applies character recognition processing to character images in the text area identified by the area analysis process to obtain data of character code strings, and stores the obtained data in the memory 103 I save it. The data of each character code string includes character code information as a result of recognition for each character image included in the text area, and external rectangle information of the character image (coordinates of the upper left corner of the external rectangle and information of width and height). Assume that it contains.

An example of the character recognition processing will be briefly described below. Note that the processing for recognizing a character image as a character can use the latest technology.

When the document image is not a binary image, for example, the binary image in each text area is obtained by binarizing the image in the text area. Histograms are generated by counting the number of black pixels for each vertical and horizontal line in each binarized text area. Based on the vertical histogram and the horizontal histogram, the direction in which the periodic histograms appear is defined as the line direction, and the portion where the number of pixels of the histograms is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value is defined as the portion forming the character line, Acquire line images. Histograms are calculated for each line image in the direction perpendicular to the line direction, and an image of each character is extracted based on the result of the histograms. This extracted range becomes circumscribed rectangular information of one character. In this case, discrimination is made using histograms obtained by counting the number of black pixels. Alternatively, each character area can be determined using a projection that indicates whether each line contains black pixels.

To obtain the feature vector, edge components and the like are extracted from the picture in the circumscribed rectangle of each character picture, and the similarity is calculated by comparing the acquired feature vector with the feature vectors in the previously registered character recognition dictionary. The code of the character type (character type) having the maximum similarity is determined as the character code corresponding to the character image in the rectangle. In this way, the acquired data is acquired by assigning the character codes to all circumscribed rectangles of the characters included in the text area. Next, the character codes obtained from each text area form a character code string.

In addition, for English character areas, it is checked whether there is an inter-word space between neighboring characters. For example, it is checked whether the distance between the characters is wide, and the discontinuity of the word is checked by performing matching between the character dictionary of the character recognition results of the character images and the word dictionary. Therefore, it is possible to check whether or not a space between words exists. If it is determined that there is a space between words, the character code of the space is inserted into the character code string.

10 and 11 show an example of the result of the character recognition process for the text area 801 shown in FIG. Character lines 1001 and 1002 are extracted from the text area 1000 of FIG. 10. Three characters 1011, 1012, and 1013 are extracted from the character line 1001, and are each subjected to character recognition processing. As a result, character codes corresponding to these characters are obtained, so that character code string data 1101 of FIG. 11 is generated. Similarly, since the three characters 1021, 1022, and 1023 extracted from the character line 1002 are subjected to character recognition processing, the character code string data 1102 of FIG. 11 is generated.

Note that the above description is an example, and that a character code string can be obtained using processing methods using other known character recognition techniques. 10 and 11 show a case where the Japanese text area is subjected to character recognition processing. However, the present invention is not limited to Japanese. For example, text areas including other languages (eg, English alphabet, etc.) are similarly subjected to character recognition to obtain character codes.

In step S206, the CPU 102 temporarily stores the page image data, the area data and the character code string data to be processed in association with each other in the memory 103 or the hard disk 104. FIG.

In step S207, the CPU 102 checks whether image data to be processed still remains. If the image data to be processed still remains, the process returns to step S203 to process the next page image data. If not, the process proceeds to step S208.

In step S208, the CPU 102 combines the data for all the pages stored in the memory 103 or the hard disk 104 in page order to generate a searchable electronic document including a plurality of pages.

The data of the electronic document generated in step S208 includes drawing information necessary for electronically displaying each page image on a display or the like, or for printing each page image by a printer, and the user performing a search using search keywords. It can keep all of the content information that makes it possible. As data formats that satisfy such conditions, PDF, SVG, and the like are available. However, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that embedding font data is designated as the format of the electronic document to be generated. As a format including embedding of font data under essential conditions, for example, XPS and the like are known. The following description is provided under the assumption of a specification of a page description format using an XML representation. However, the present invention is not limited to such specific format.

Fig. 6 shows an example of page description of an electronic document generated based on a specification of a page description format used in the description of this embodiment when a document containing page pictures for two pages is input. In this embodiment, as an example of a page description format, as shown in FIG. 6, descriptions are performed together in a single file. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the following format (for example, XPS) can be used. That is, an independent font data file is prepared and referenced from the main body file, which files are combined into a single electronic document by, for example, ZIP compression or the like.

An example of the electronic document data generation processing executed in step S208 will be described below with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 4.

In step S401, the CPU 102 describes a start tag of the electronic document. In the page data description format specification of this description, the element <Document> represents a start tag of an electronic document. Note that the XML description within the scope bounded by <Document> and </ Document> indicating the end of <Document> corresponds to the description data associated with each page included in this document. In the example of FIG. 6, reference numeral 601 denotes a start tag of an electronic document, and 612 denotes an end tag.

In step S402, the CPU 102 specifies data associated with a first page of unspecified pages and defines it as data to be processed.

In step S403, the CPU 102 generates and describes a tag indicating the start of page data to be processed. In this example, the element tag <Page> indicates the beginning of the page data, and the XML description within the range bounded by the <Page> and </ Page> serving as the end tag corresponds to the drawing data and the content data in this page. . The <Page> tag describes the physical size of the page using the attributes "Width" and "Height", which represent the pixel width and height of the page, and the attribute "Dpi," which represents the resolution, and the attribute "Number", which represents the page number. Also specify the page number using.

In the technical example of FIG. 6, the start tag 602 of the <Page> element has the width "Width" of "1680", the height "Height" of "2376", the resolution "Dpi" of "200", It is described that the page number "Number" is "1". The data of the first page is described within the range up to the end tag 606 (elements 603-606).

In step S404, the CPU 102 generates and describes a tag indicating drawing data of the image among the data forming the page.

In the page data description format specification of this description, it is assumed that one <Image> element represents drawing data of one image. Further, it is assumed that the contents of the image data are described in the attribute "Data", and the drawing position of the image in the page is described using the coordinate information of the attributes "X", "Y", "Width" and "Height". . If a page contains a plurality of images, each image data is described in a plurality of lines upwards in the order in which they appear. Note that the attribute "Data" describes the contents of the image data in the compressed image data format. As the compression method, a JPEG compressed code string is used for a color or gray image, or an MMR compressed code string is used for a binary image.

Element 603 in FIG. 6 defines to draw the scanned image of the first page of the document on the entire page. The element 603 in FIG. 6 describes the position and size of the image as [X = "0", Y = "0", Width = "1680", Height = "2376"]. In addition, the element describes a string of code strings generated by JPEG compression of the image as the value of the attribute "Data" (the string of the "Data" attribute is omitted in FIG. 6 for simplicity of the drawing). In this way, the <Image> element 603 is described. Note that the resolution of the scanned image can be changed as needed before the scanned image is JPEG compressed and stored (e.g., the resolution of an image scanned at 600 dpi can be changed to 300 dpi and the image is preserved). Can be).

In step S405, the CPU 102 generates a description indicating drawing data of characters among the data forming the page.

In the page description format specification of this description, one <Text> element represents drawing data of characters for one line. Attribute data described in the <Text> element includes "Direction", "X", "Y", "Font", "Size", "Color", "String", "CWidth", "CGlyphId", and the like. Note that the attribute "Direction" indicates whether the string is written vertically or horizontally. The attributes "X" and "Y" specify the coordinates of the character start position. The attribute "Font" specifies the ID of the font data required for drawing the character code. The attribute "Size" specifies the font size. The attribute "Color" specifies the character color at the time of drawing using a set of four values, that is, an R channel value, a G component value, a B component value, and an alpha channel value representing transparency. The attribute "String" specifies the contents of the string (character code string). The attribute "CWidth" specifies the character spacing from each character in the "String" to the next character. The attribute "CGlyphId" specifies the IDs of the character shape data, that is, the glyphs used in the drawing of each character in the "String". Note that if "Direction" is not specified, horizontal creation is set by default.

As a character code string forming each <Text> element, the data of the character code strings generated in step S205 of FIG. 2 is further corresponding to character lines, that is, character sets connected vertically or horizontally. It is divided and used.

"에 대응하는 <Text> 요소(604)에서는, 이하의 속성들이 지정된다.In the description example of FIG. 6, two <Text> elements 604, 605 are associated with the character drawing techniques of the first page, that is, the techniques corresponding to the character code string data 1101, 1102 of FIG. 11. do. For example, a horizontally written string containing three characters of data 1101 of FIG.

In the <Text> element 604 corresponding to ", the following attributes are specified.

In the attributes "X" and "Y", X = "236" and Y = "272" are specified as the coordinates of the upper left corner of the circumscribed rectangle for three characters. In the attribute "Direction", "Horizontal" indicating horizontal creation is specified.

In the attribute "Font" indicating the font type, "Font01" is specified. In the attribute "Size" representing the font size, "97" pixels are designated inferred from the heights of the characters in the character line. In the attribute "Color" representing the character color at the time of drawing, R component value = G component value = B component value = 0 and alpha channel = 255 are specified (that is, transparent color is specified).

In the attribute "String" representing the contents of the string (a string of character codes corresponding to the respective characters), "0x2422, 0x2424, 0x2426" is specified. In the above example, the character codes acquired at the time of character recognition of the Japanese character string shown in FIG. 7 are described. However, in character recognition of the English character string in the document image shown in Fig. 17, character codes of alphabets are described. In the attribute "CWidth" representing the character spacing of each character, a value corresponding to the coordinate differences between the right neighboring character and the left end for the first two characters, and a value corresponding to its own character width for the final character, ie , "104, 96, 59" is specified.

In the attribute "CGlyphId", the ID of the glyph matching the character shape data of each character is generally specified. However, in this embodiment, since the character shape of the transparent character is drawn on the scanned image, the user cannot visually confirm it regardless of the character shape. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the same glyph ID is designated to reduce the character shape data (font data) even for different characters. Thus, in the example of FIG. 6, the same attribute values "0, 0, 0" are described in the attribute "CGlyphId". The character shape designated by this glyph ID may be a simple shape (for example, a rectangle). Note that details of the glyph shape are described below.

Note that the attribute values are merely examples and may be described using other values having the same meanings. For example, the attribute "Size" representing the font size can be described using a value such as the number of points instead of the number of pixels based on the pixel height and the image resolution.

In the above example, the coordinate position of the upper left corner of the circumscribed rectangle of each character line is designated as a reference, and the font size is specified to match the height of the character line, so that the character string is almost overlaid on the positions of the character images of the scanned image ( overlaid). However, the present invention is not limited thereto. In particular, in this embodiment, a transparent color is specified for each character to be drawn, and the user does not see it, so that the character string to be drawn does not need to be overlaid on the corresponding character images. For example, the transparent character string can be drawn in the lower portions of the corresponding character images. For example, in the example of element 604 of FIG. 6, if X = "236", Y = "368" and Size = "10" are set, a transparent string with a low height is drawn at the bottoms of the character pictures. do. At this time, the size (height) of the transparent character string to be drawn is set to be a predetermined size (e.g., 10) smaller than the character images.

The transparent string to be drawn is used later when performing a search using the search keywords, and the string matching the search keyword is highlighted (e.g., displayed to have a different color). Since the transparent character string is drawn at a position almost corresponding to the positions of the corresponding character images, a search is performed using the transparent character string, but to the user, the character images appear to have been found by the search. Thus, when using a transparent string to highlight characters when performing a search, even if it is drawn at the bottoms of the corresponding character pictures, the corresponding character pictures are underlined in the search. Is highlighted. Thus, no problem occurs. The drawing position of a transparent string is not limited to the bottom. For example, a technique can be done to draw a transparent character string at the lower half or the upper half of each character image.

In step S406, the CPU 102 describes </ Page> indicating the end of the page.

The CPU 102 checks whether the page to be described in step S407 still remains. If the page to be described still remains, the process returns to step S403 to have the next page as the page image to be processed. If no page to be described remains, the process proceeds to step S408.

In the technical example of FIG. 6, the CPU 102 executes the processes of steps S404 to S406 for the image of the second page to describe the elements 607 to 610.

In step S408, the CPU 102 describes the contents of the font data including all the glyphs used to draw the character strings in this electronic document.

In the page data description format specification of the present description, the glyph data included in the font data is described as a <Glyph> element within a range bounded by <Font> and </ Font>. The <Font> element contains an attribute "ID" that indicates the type of the font. The <Glyph> element includes an attribute "ID" indicating the type of the glyph and an attribute "Path" indicating the glyph (character shape) corresponding to the ID. Note that the attribute "Path" is described to represent a glyph using a straight or curved function within a 1024 x 1024 drawing rectangle unit with the origin at the bottom left.

In the technical example of FIG. 6, in the <Font> element 611, a font of Id = "Font01" is defined, and one type of glyph of Glyph Id = "0" is defined within that element. The "Path" attribute "M0,0 V-1024 H1024 V1024 f" representing the glyphs of this glyph is "MOVE" to the origin (0, 0), draw a vertical line up 1024 units, and 1024 units to the right. A glyph indicating "painting a bounded range" by drawing a horizontal line, drawing a 1024 unit vertical line down, and drawing lines from the current point to the starting point. In other words, this attribute has a technique for representing square glyphs obtained by painting a 1024 × 1024 rectangle.

Note that the description of the <Font> element 611 of FIG. 6 is an example and may define other simple character shapes such as triangles, circles, straight lines, etc., and may define a space (space shape) as the character shape. .

In step S409, the CPU 102 describes </ Document> indicating the end of the electronic document, thus ending the generation of the electronic document. The generated electronic document is stored as a file in the memory 103 or the hard disk 104 in the image processing apparatus 100. Upon preservation, the file can be compressed using known text compression techniques.

Referring again to Fig. 2, in step S209, the CPU 102 transfers the electronic document generated in step S208 to the transfer destination (e.g., the image processing apparatus 110) by the transfer method specified in step S201. The data transfer process itself uses the latest technology, and a description thereof is not provided.

The image processing apparatus 110, which is a transfer destination, receives the transmitted electronic document through the network interface 114, and stores it in the hard disk 113. The data reception process uses the latest technology, and a description thereof is not provided.

Note that any identification information (file name, etc.) can be used to specify the electronic document stored on the hard disk of the device. For example, a string associated with the reception time may be assigned. Also, non-overlapping numbers can be selected and automatically assigned, or the user can specify such information at the time of generation of the electronic document.

An example of a process for searching and browsing electronic documents is described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3. The case where the image processing apparatus 110 performs a search will be illustrated below. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the image processing apparatus 110 may be designed to perform a search.

In step S301, the user inputs a search keyword that can be included in the text of the desired electronic document from the user interface 115 to search the electronic document group stored in the image processing apparatus 110 for the character string of the desired electronic document. k is called the length of the input string.

In step S302, the CPU 111 checks whether all the electronic document files in the hard disk 113 of the image processing apparatus 110 include the electronic document files to be retrieved. If such electronic document files are included, the CPU 111 specifies one electronic document file from them, and if the file is compressed, decompresses the electronic document file. Next, the process proceeds to step S303. If no electronic document to be searched exists, the process proceeds to step S312 to notify the user that the search processing for all the electronic documents is completed.

In step S303, the CPU 111 performs preparations for performing a search on the text data in the electronic document specified in step S302. In this step, the CPU 111 arranges the text (character codes) in the document in a line and initializes the search start position n, that is, sets n = 0.

The following describes an example of the processing in step S303. The CPU 111 parses electronic document data using an XML parser, and acquires the character code string described in the attribute "String" when the <Text> element appears. The CPU 111 adds, to the character code string table, a set of the character code of each character and the description position of the character code value in the electronic document based on the character code string described in the "String" attribute. The description position of the character code value is the number of characters counted from the head of the electronic document data to indicate the position of the head of the character string describing the corresponding character code. FIG. 12 shows an example of a character code string table generated based on the electronic document shown in FIG. For example, the three character codes "0x2422", "0x2424" and "0x2426" described in the attribute "String" of the <Text> element 604 in the electronic document shown in FIG. 6 are from the head of this electronic document. From the counted 1093th, 1100th, and 1107th character positions, respectively. Similarly, the description positions of the remaining six character codes are calculated based on elements 605 and 609 to generate the character code string table shown in FIG. In Fig. 12, character string numbers (No.) are assigned in order from zero.

In step S304, the CPU 111 checks whether each character code in the character code string table matches the character code string of the search keyword having the search start position n as a starting point. If a part matching the search keyword is detected, the CPU 111 sets the variable n at that time as the head position of the matching character string, and the process proceeds to step S305.

If it is determined in step S304 that no match is found, the process proceeds to step S309 to check whether all characters in the character code string table have been searched. If it is determined that the search processing for all the character code strings stored in the character code string table is completed, the process proceeds to step S311 to notify completion of the search process for the electronic document which is the current document to be searched. On the other hand, if it is determined that the search processing of all the character strings has not yet been completed, the process proceeds to step S310 to increase the variable n by one. Next, the process returns to step S304 to check whether the character code string at the next search start position n in the table matches the search keyword. If N is the total number of character codes stored in the character code string table, if n <(N-k), it is determined in step S309 that the search processing of all character code strings has not yet been completed, and n≥ (N-k) Note that it is determined that the search process is completed.

"의 문자 코드열 "0x242b" 및 "0x242d"를 헤드로부터 스캔함으로써 그 검색 키워드와 매칭되는 부분에 대하여 도 12의 문자 코드열 테이블을 검색할 때, 단계들 S304, S309 및 S310의 처리들을 반복하여, 제1 매칭 문자열의 문자열 번호로서 n = 3을 추출한다.For example, search keyword "

When searching the character code string table of Fig. 12 for the portion matching the search keyword by scanning the character code strings " 0x242b " and " 0x242d " from the head, the processes of steps S304, S309 and S310 are repeated. , N = 3 is extracted as the string number of the first matching string.

In step S305, the CPU 111 specifies the page of the electronic document to which the character string data corresponding to the character string number n belongs.

For example, when parsing electronic document data, if the <Page> element describing the <Text> element is determined, the CPU 111 may identify the page number based on the "Number" attribute. Therefore, the CPU 111 acquires the description position of the character string corresponding to the position n specified in step S305 from FIG. 12, and specifies the page to which the character string belongs by detecting <Page> elements in which the description position exists in between. . When parsing electronic document data in step S303, when the CPU 111 determines <Page> elements describing respective <Text> elements and stores them in the character code string table of Fig. 12, it is a string number. The page number can be easily specified based on the. Note that the detection method of the matching character string in step S304 and the specific method of the page number in step S305 are not limited to the above-described examples.

In step S306, the CPU 111 draws the page determined in step S305 according to the drawing technique, and displays the page on the user interface 115. At this time, when drawing a string number (No.) in the range from n to n + k-1, the CPU 111 makes the highlighting effect so that the user can easily identify the position corresponding to the character. Draw the characters using. The details of the drawing that provides the highlighting effect to the portion matching the search keyword will be described below.

The page drawing process executed in step S306 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 5.

In step S501, the CPU 111 determines the size of the page image as a drawing result based on the values of "Width" and "Height" attributes of the <Page> element corresponding to the specified page number.

In step S502, the CPU 111 secures a memory capable of storing pixel information of a page image.

In step S503, the CPU 111 extracts one element to be processed among the child elements of the <Page> element and determines the type of the element to be processed. If it is determined that the element to be processed is <Image>, the process proceeds to step S504, and if it is determined that the element to be processed is <Text>, the process proceeds to step S505. If all child elements of the <Page> element have already been processed, processing proceeds to step S517.

In step S504, the CPU 111 extracts the compressed image described by the "Data" attribute value of the <Image> element. Further, the CPU 111 scales the extracted image to fit the entire drawing rectangle area in the page image represented by the attributes "X", "Y", "Width" and "Height", and scales the image to step S502. Overwrites the area of the page image memory secured by. After that, the process returns to step S503.

In step S505, the CPU 111 selects the character start position (X, Y), character font ID (F), character size (S) and character color (C) from the respective attributes described in the <Text> element to be processed. Get. In addition, the CPU 111 acquires the number N of characters described in the <Text> element.

In step S506, the CPU 111 reserves the memory required to generate the glyph image. In this step, it is assumed that the CPU 111 secures a binary image memory for 1024 x 1024 pixels.

In step S507, the CPU 111 initializes the counter i representing the character of interest to "1".

The CPU 111 checks in step S508 whether i> N. If i ≦ N, the process proceeds to step S509; If i> N, the CPU 111 determines that the processing of the <Text> element is completed, and the processing returns to step S503.

In step S509, the CPU 111 obtains the character code P of the i th character from the attribute "String" of the <Text> element, and obtains the glyph ID Q of the i th character from the attribute "CGlyphId".

In step S510, the CPU 111 retrieves the electronic document for the <Font> element description having the font ID = (F), and among the child elements of the <Font> element description, < Get the "Path" attribute from the Glyph> element.

In step S511, the CPU 111 generates a glyph binary image on the glyph image generation memory secured in step S506 according to the "Path" attribute value acquired in step S510. Note that the glyph binary image is, for example, an image in which the portion to be drawn is represented as "1" and the portion not to be drawn is represented as "0". Note that the portion " 1 " to be drawn is later drawn in a transparent color.

In step S512, the CPU 111 scales the glyph binary image to have a rectangular size according to the value S of the character size attribute.

In step S513, the CPU 111 draws the scaled glyph binary image in step S512 in the rectangular area with reference to the coordinate positions (X, Y) in the page image memory. The pixel value of each pixel at the time of drawing a binary image so that it superimposes on a page image is defined by the following formula | equation. It is assumed that each pixel value after the glyph is drawn is (r ', g', b ') with respect to the pixel values (r, g, b) of the page image before the glyph is drawn.

Pixel corresponding to pixel value "0" in the glyph binary image: (r ', g', b ') = (r, g, b)

Pixel corresponding to pixel value "1" of the glyph binary image: (r ', g', b ') = (F (r, Cr), F (g, Cg), F (b, Cb))

Where F (r, Cr) = (r × A + Cr × (255-A)) / 255, F (g, Cg) = (g × A + Cg × (255-A)) / 255 and F (b, Cb) = (b x A + Cb x (255-A)) / 255. Also, A is the alpha channel value for letter color C, and Cr, Cg and Cb are the R, G and B values of letter color C. When "255" is specified as the alpha channel value, since this glyph binary image is transparent, (r ', g', b ') = (r also for the pixel corresponding to pixel value "1" of the glyph binary image. , g, b).

The CPU 111, at step S514, uses a character code string table shown in FIG. 12, for example, a string number (No.) in which the i th character of interest is in a range from n to n + k-1. Checks whether a character is More specifically, since the description start positions of the respective characters in the range from n to n + k-1 can be detected from the character code string table, the check processing is performed so that the start position of the i th character of interest is the start of this description. Is achieved based on whether or not it matches one of the locations. If the i th character of interest is a character that is a string number in the range of n to n + k-1, the process proceeds to step S515; Otherwise, processing proceeds to step S516.

In step S515, the CPU 111 executes the highlight display process to indicate that the character of interest is within the range detected as the search character string. More specifically, the pixel values (r, g, b) of pixels within the rectangular range corresponding to the range in which the character string is drawn and starting from the position (X, Y) of the page image memory are the pixel values (r) given by ', g', b ')

(r ', g', b ') = (G (r), G (g), G (b))

(For G (r) = 255-r, G (g) = 255-g, G (b) = 255-b).

Note that the highlight display processing for inverting the color is an example, and other types of highlight display processing can be used. For example, the pixels corresponding to those having the pixel value "0" of the glyph binary image may not be changed, and the pixel values (r, g of the pixels corresponding to those having the pixel value "1" of the glyph binary image , b) may be changed to (r ', g', b '). Alternatively, using the value of the attribute "CWidth" which specifies the space width of the characters instead of the width of the glyph binary image as the width of the rectangular area to be highlighted, successive search strings can be filled without gaps. When executing the highlight display process using the character intervals of the characters, the space between the characters is also filled as shown in FIG.

In step S516, the CPU 111 adds the character spacing (value of the "CWidth" attribute) of the nth character to X, and increments n by 1 (n = n + 1). Next, the process returns to step S508.

In step S517, the CPU 111 displays the contents of the page image memory in which the drawing result for one page, that is, the <Image> and <Text> element descriptions in the <Page> element are drawn, in the display buffer of the user interface 115. Is sent to, and the drawing result is displayed.

Hereinafter, the case where the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 is performed using the drawing technique of the 1st page of the electronic document shown in FIG. 6 as an example is demonstrated.

By the processing in step S501, the CPU 111 causes the image size of the page to be 1680 x 2376 pixels based on the attribute values Width = "1680" and Height = "2376" of the <Page> element of the first page of FIG. Decide on them.

By the processing in step S502, the CPU 111 secures 1680 x 2376 x 3 bytes of memory, for example, when the page image is expressed in RGB 24-bit color.

By the processing at step S504, the CPU 111 extracts an image from the compressed code described in the &quot; Data &quot; attribute value of the <Image> element 603 of Fig. 6, and the image is extracted from the entire area of the page image memory. Overwrite Note that since the image data in this example has the same size of 1680 × 2376 pixels as the pixels of the original page, the CPU 111 does not apply the scaling process.

By the processing in step S505, the CPU 111 uses the X = "236", Y = "272", the number of characters N = "3", and the character font ID = "Font01 from the <Text> element 604 of FIG. ", Character size =" 97 "and character color" 0, 0, 0, 255 "are acquired.

By the processing in step S509, the CPU 111 first acquires the first character code = 0x2422 and GlyphId = "0" of the "String" attribute of the <Text> element.

Before generating the glyph binary image in step S511, the CPU 111 acquires "Path" data of the glyph having the ID based on the character font ID = "Font01" obtained in step S510. In the example of FIG. 6, the CPU 111 acquires a "Path" attribute of Id = "0" of the <Glyph> element included in the <Font> element 611. In step S511, the CPU 111 generates a glyph image based on the data of the acquired "Path" attribute of Id = 0 of the <Glyph> element. More specifically, the CPU 111 generates an image by filling the entire glyph image area of 1024 x 1024 pixels with "1" according to the description of the "Path" attribute.

Since all "GlyphId" values of the characters in the <Text> elements 604 and 605 described in the electronic document shown in FIG. 6 are "0", the glyph images generated in step S511 for all the characters are consequently resulted. Same as each other. Therefore, the CPU 111 can temporarily store the glyph image generated in step S511 in the memory, and can use the temporarily stored glyph image when drawing other characters.

In step S512, the CPU 111 scales the glyph character image to 97 x 97 pixels based on the character size = "97".

In step S513, the rectangular range of 97 x 97 pixels starting from position (X, Y) = (236, 272) on the page image serves as an area to be drawn by the scaled glyph character image. In the example of FIG. 6, since the character color = "0, 0, 0, 255", that is, the alpha channel value A = 255, even if the corresponding pixel value in the glyph binary image is "1" (r ', g ', b') = (r, g, b) is always set. That is, the pixel values in the rectangular area in the page image are not changed before or after the process of step S513.

The CPU 111 determines, based on the character code string table in step S514, that the first character in the <Text> element 604 of FIG. 6 corresponds to a range from n to n + k-1 of the string numbers. Check if it is.

In this case, the character code string table of FIG. 12 is generated based on, for example, the electronic document of FIG. 6, and it is assumed that the range of character string numbers determined to match the keyword in step S304 of FIG. 3 is 3 and 4. do. At this time, since the first character code in the <Text> element 604 of FIG. 6 is not in the range of 3 and 4, the process proceeds to step S516. Since the starting character position of the first character code description in the <Text> element 604 is 1093 and does not match any description position of characters in the range of string numbers 3 and 4 in the character code string table, the <Text> It may be determined that the first character of element 604 is not a character corresponding to the range of 3 and 4.

Thereafter, upon execution of the processing of the first character in the <Text> element 605 of FIG. 6, it is determined in step S514 that the first character matches the start position of characters in the range of 3 and 4 in the character code string table. In step S515, the highlight display drawing process is executed.

For this character, in step S515 the CPU 111 selects the pixel values (r, g, b) in the 92 x 92 area starting from the positions 236, 472 of the page image memory (G (r), G (g). ) And G (b)).

After all <Text> elements are drawn, as described above, the page picture shown in Fig. 13 is obtained. For regions corresponding to characters in the range determined to match the keyword in step S304, the luminance values are inverted in each rectangle, and the image data drawn by the <Image> element is the regions corresponding to the remaining characters. Does not change in Note that the above example illustrates the case of the Japanese document. Also, the same processing is applied to English documents. For example, when the electronic document data generation process shown in FIG. 4 is executed based on the image shown in FIG. 17, the elements 604 and 605 of the electronic document in FIG. 6 describe the alphabetic character codes. The data is generated. For example, when performing a search for this electronic document data using the string "EF", the drawing process shown in Fig. 5 is executed, and as shown in Fig. 18, the rectangular area corresponding to the found string is shown. The pictures in the fields are highlighted.

In this way, since the found character string is highlighted, the user can easily determine the position of the search keyword in the page by observing only the image of the page displayed in step S306.

14A and 14B show an example showing a method of displaying a page image when adopting the highlight display setting by another method. The page drawing technique of FIG. 14A corresponds when transparent characters having a size smaller than each character image (eg, Size = "10") describe attribute data of the <Text> element in step S405 of FIG. It is described that it is drawn in the position corresponding to the lower part (lower part) of the character image. Based on this page drawing technique, when the rectangular range of the character interval x character size of each character is highlighted in the highlight display process of step S515, the highlighted page image is generated as shown in Fig. 14B. As such, since the underlined discovery portion appears to be highlighted, the user can easily determine the location of the found string within the page. 14A and 14B show examples of document images containing Japanese character strings, and note that the same processing can be applied to document images containing English (alphabetic) character strings.

Referring back to FIG. 3, in step S307, the CPU 111 allows the user to select whether to terminate the search and browsing process or to continue the search for another search portion. If the user chooses to exit, the process of FIG. 3 ends; If the user selects continue, the process proceeds to step S308.

In step S308, the CPU 111 sets n = n + k, and the process returns to step S304 to search for the next part matching the search keyword.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, when converting a paper document into an electronic document, the electronic document includes a technique necessary for drawing characters extracted from the page on the page image in transparent color. With respect to this electronic document, the user can proceed with the search while checking the pages in which each matching portion of the search keyword is highlighted.

This electronic document contains font data in one simple character shape (eg, rectangular), and is described to draw transparent characters of various character types in the document using the simple character shape. That is, one character shape is commonly used for a plurality of character types. Therefore, even when font data used in an electronic document needs to be stored in the electronic document, the file size (data size) of the electronic document can be suppressed.

Second Embodiment

Fig. 15 shows an example of the electronic document generated by the second embodiment. As in the first embodiment, it is assumed that the image processing apparatus 100 generates and transmits an electronic document, and the image processing apparatus 110 receives, browses, and retrieves the electronic document.

Reference numerals 1501 and 1512 in FIG. 15 denote techniques for indicating the beginning and end of an electronic document. Reference numerals 1502 and 1506 denote techniques indicating the start and end of the drawing of the first page. Reference numeral 1503 denotes a description of the image data drawing of the first page. Reference numerals 1504 and 1505 denote techniques of text drawing of the first page. Reference numerals 1507 and 1510 indicate techniques indicating the start and end of the drawing of the second page. Reference numeral 1508 denotes a description of the image data drawing of the second page. Reference numeral 1509 designates a text drawing description of the second page. Reference numeral 1511 denotes a description of the font data used for this electronic document.

The description of the electronic document generation processing of the second embodiment is almost the same as that of the first embodiment using Figs. 2 and 4, and the description of the electronic document search and browsing processing is of the first embodiment using Figs. Since it is almost the same, differences from the first embodiment will be described.

The <Text> elements 1504, 1505, and 1509 representing the text drawing of FIG. 15 do not describe any attribute "CGlyphId" that specifies the glyph ID of each character, and instead of the glyph ID of the font data 1511. The character codes themselves written in the attribute "CString" are used.

Six character types of "Path" data defined in the font data 1511 define the same character shape. Font data described in this way can be compressed at a high compression rate using known compression techniques such as LZ77 and the like.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, when converting a paper document into an electronic document, the electronic document includes a technique necessary for drawing characters extracted from the page on the page image in transparent color. With respect to this electronic document, the user can proceed with the search while checking the pages in which each matching portion of the search keyword is highlighted.

This electronic document stores font data constituted by the same type of character shape data for each character described in the document. Since the font data composed of the same type of character shape data can be compressed at a high compression rate by a general text compression technique, the second embodiment also suppresses the data size of the electronic document while maintaining the font data used in the electronic document. can do. Also in the second embodiment, since the character shape described by the glyph is simplified and preserved, the data size of the character shape data itself can also be suppressed.

Third Embodiment

The above-described embodiments describe the entire page image obtained by applying JPEG compression or the like to the scanned image in the <Image> element and generate an electronic document describing the transparent text in the <Text> element. However, the present invention is not limited to such specific document.

For example, the <Image> element may contain MMR compressed binary images for the respective colors of the text area and the graphics area instead of the description of the JPEG compressed picture of the entire scanned picture, and the JPEG compressed picture of the remaining area. Can be stored. As a method of interpreting the regions included in the document image and adaptively applying the compression process, for example, the methods described in JP-A-07-236062, JP-A-2002-077633, etc. can be used. have. The processing for suppressing the data size of the font data used when drawing the transparent text of the present invention and such image compression processing are combined to generate an electronic image having a higher compression ratio.

Instead of a full page picture, only partial areas such as text area, graphic area, table area, picture area and the like can be preserved with their position data.

<Fourth Embodiment>

In the above-described embodiments, the portion corresponding to the search result is highlighted by inverting the colors (r, g, b) of the image. However, the present invention is not limited to such colors used. For example, the predetermined color (eg, yellow) used to specify the search results may be rendered translucent (eg, alpha channel 128). Alternatively, the character color (Cr, Cg, Cb) can be used to determine the highlight color.

<Fifth Embodiment>

In the above-described embodiments, as described with reference to Figs. 3 and 5, when performing a search, the string matching the keyword is searched sequentially from the head of the document, and the first found string is highlighted. Next, when the user enters the "next search" instruction, the next string matching the keyword is searched in order, and the search result is highlighted. In this manner, in the above-described embodiments, the character string matching the search keyword is searched in turn from the head, and the search result is highlighted whenever the search keyword is hit. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, all strings contained in an electronic document can be compared to a search keyword, all strings matching the keyword can be specified, and all of these strings matching the keyword can be highlighted at the same time.

<Other embodiments>

It is also noted that the objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a system or apparatus with a computer readable storage medium storing program code (computer program) of software for implementing the functions of the above-described embodiments. Furthermore, the objects of the present invention are achieved when the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

The computer program of the present invention allows the apparatus to perform the respective steps described in the above-described flow charts. That is, this computer program is a program for causing the computer to function as respective processing units (each processing means) corresponding to respective steps of the flowcharts. In this case, the program code itself read out from the computer readable storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for providing the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

In addition, the present invention includes a case where an operating system (OS) or the like running on a computer implements the above-described embodiments by executing some or all of the actual processes based on the instructions of the program code.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the CPU executes respective steps of the flowcharts in cooperation with a memory, a hard disk, a display device, and the like. The present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and some or all of the processes of the respective steps described using the flowcharts may be configured by dedicated electronic circuits instead of the CPU.

According to the present invention, an electronic document is generated by applying character recognition to character images in a document image, and drawing the character recognition result in transparent color on the document image. In this way, the electronic document makes it possible to specify the portion corresponding to the search keyword on the document image when performing the search. When generating this electronic document, it is font data used when drawing a character recognition result, and contains the technique required to use simple character-shaped font data in common for a plurality of character types. Therefore, even if the electronic document needs to preserve font data, an increase in file size can be minimized. In addition, by drawing using a simple character shape, the data size of the font data itself can be reduced.

Also, by using the same character shape as the font data, the file size can be reduced.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-172736, filed June 29, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Claims (19)

Character recognition means configured to perform character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And An electronic document including glyph data which is commonly used for the plurality of character codes when drawing the document image, the plurality of character codes obtained by the character recognition means, and the characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. Generating means configured to generate Image processing apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1, And the glyph data represent a triangular shape, a circular shape, or a straight line shape. The method of claim 1, And the glyph data indicates a rectangular shape. The method of claim 1, And said glyph data represents a space character shape. The method of claim 1, The electronic document generated by the generating means includes a description necessary for drawing the glyph data corresponding to the plurality of character codes in transparent colors at positions corresponding to each of the character images in the document image. Processing unit. The method of claim 1, The electronic document generated by the generating means includes a technique necessary for drawing glyph data corresponding to the plurality of character codes in transparent colors at positions corresponding to lower ends of each of the character images in the document image. Processing unit. The method of claim 1, The electronic document generated by the generating means corresponds to the lower end of each of the character images in the document image, with glyph data corresponding to the plurality of character codes being smaller than the size of each character image in the document image. An image processing apparatus comprising a technique necessary for drawing in transparent color at positions to be made. The method of claim 1, And the electronic document is an electronic document described in XML format. The method of claim 1, And the electronic document is an electronic document described in XPS format. The method of claim 1, Further comprising compression means configured to compress the document image, And image images stored in the electronic document are document images compressed by the compression means. The method of claim 10, And the compression means interprets the areas included in the document image and adaptively compresses the areas. The method of claim 1, And retrieving means configured to retrieve the generated electronic document using an input keyword and to highlight a portion matching the keyword. The method of claim 12, And the searching means highlights the portion by inverting the color of the portion matching the keyword. The method of claim 12, The searching means highlights a portion corresponding to a rectangular region determined by each character associated with character codes matching the keyword, as a portion matching the keyword, And the width of the rectangular area is the character spacing of each character associated with the character code matching the keyword, and the height of the rectangular area is the size of each character associated with the character code matching the keyword. Character recognition means configured to perform character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And Generating means configured to generate an electronic document including the document image, a plurality of character codes acquired by the character recognition means, and glyph data of the same shape used when drawing characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. Image processing apparatus comprising a. Controlling character recognition means to perform character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And An electronic document including glyph data commonly used for the plurality of character codes when drawing the document image, a plurality of character codes acquired in the step of controlling the character recognition means, and characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. Controlling the generating means to generate Image processing method comprising a. Controlling character recognition means to perform character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And To generate an electronic document containing the document image, a plurality of character codes acquired in the step of controlling the character recognition means, and glyph data of the same shape used when drawing characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. Controlling the means Image processing method comprising a. Computer, Performing character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And An electronic document including glyph data commonly used for the plurality of character codes when drawing the document image, a plurality of character codes acquired in the step of performing the character recognition process, and characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. Steps to generate A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for executing an image processing method comprising a. Computer, Performing character recognition processing on the plurality of character images in the document image to obtain character codes corresponding to each of the character images; And Generating an electronic document including the document image, a plurality of character codes obtained in the step of performing the character recognition process, and glyph data of the same shape used when drawing characters corresponding to the plurality of character codes. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for executing an image processing method comprising a.

Images